Why Is Tap Water Better Than Bottled Water

Have you ever considered what is happening to all the plastic bottles you use? According to "Bottled Water: The Wrong Choice paragraph 2" it states, that when plastic bottles are made we are using more fossil fuels. By doing this we are damaging environment!

However, in response to the previous paragraph there are plenty of people in the world who are for bottled water and think that it is worth the cost. “Bottled water has the lightest environmental footprint of all packaged beverages”. (Lauria, 665).

One of the biggest harms to the world is pollution caused by people. Most of the plastic materials used by people are left to pollute. Bottled water is one of the biggest plastic materials produced. Some people say that bottled water is safer, convenient, and provide jobs to workers in many ways. The reasons for buying bottled water differ. Some people buy bottled water because they don’t like the taste or smell of tap water, while others on the other hand buy it because of health concerns with water contamination. Pollution is one of the biggest problems hurting the environment today, and water bottles that are thrown out after each one-time use, contribute greatly to its increasing buildup. Bottled water is not only expensive to us, but also to the environment. Bottled water is hurting the economy, harming human lives, and damaging the environment.

There are many impacts that bottled water has on the environment. The choice of packaging determines many impacts. The bottles, which are either plastic, aluminum, or glass, that are not recycled are thrown into landfills and buried. According to the Container Recycling Institute, 86% of plastic water bottles in the United States become garbage. If water bottlers would have used 10% recycled materials in their plastic bottles in 2004, they would have saved the equivalent of 72 million gallons of gasoline. If they used 25%, they would have saved enough energy to power more than 680,000 homes for a year (Jemmott, 2008). Incinerating used bottles produces toxins such as chlorine gas and ash. Water bottles that get buried can take up to thousands of years to biodegrade. The most common type of plastic is polyethylene

Many of people have not realized that the creation of bottled water affects our environment. The production of water bottles requires a large amount of water plus the water that is needed to fill the bottle. Considering there is a shortage of water in several places, water should be better handled and not wasted on plastic bottle making. Of the eighty million single serve bottles of water consumed daily, thirty million ends up in landfills (Soechtig, 2009 qtd. in “Bottled Water: The Risks to Our Health, Our

(Ban the Bottle, 2014) In the previous year, the average American used approximately 167 disposable water bottles but only recycled 38. (Ban the Bottle, 2014) Statistics collected by the Health Research Funding organization illustrate that only 1 in 5 water bottles are recycled while the other four contribute to the 3 billion pounds of waste from plastic water bottles. (HRF, 2014) Depending on the size and volume, the cost of bottled water usually covers packaging, advertising, shipping and administrative processes. (HRF, 2014) If an individual purchases water bottles often, the cost accumulates and mass waste is produced but if one were to purchase a reusable bottle, hundreds of dollars can be saved in a year while also keeping the landfills and waste bins clear of plastic bottles and caps. (Ban the Bottle,

Tap water is extremely cheaper than bottled water is. According to Livingston, tap water costs only $2.00 every thousand gallons, whereas the cost per gallon of bottled water is $1.21. "That means, priced by gallon, bottled water is more than 600 times more expensive than tap water" (Livingston). Buying a bottled water may be cheaper at the time, however, that $1.00 or so adds up. When people buy bottled water, it is often the same as tap, just that’s been filtered or purified (Livington). So, why spend money on bottled water when it's rather identical to tap, with no

In 2004, Americans, on average, drank 24 gallons of bottled water, making it second only to carbonated soft drinks in popularity (Standage). In the article “Plastic Water Bottles Causing Flood or Harm to the Environment,” the Earth Policy Institute factors the energy used to pump, process, transport, and refrigerate bottled water as over 50 million barrels of oil every year (Schriever). It’s absurd that so many resources are used to make plastic bottles which are not necessary at all. Bottled water does allow us to drink water out of it but in reality bottled water is very bad for

A lot of people around the world do not have a the choice between tap or bottled water.

Bottled water is extremely expensive. Why pay for water when we can have it for free at our disposable through our own water supply. In 2016 Americans drank over 30 billion bottles of water spending almost 12 billion dollars (Statistic Brain, 2016). Many people complain about our water supply, some say it taste like bleach, others say it has a metal after taste and some say they just do not trust it. Americans are spending money on water filters and also purchasing bottled water when in reality many bottled water companies are using tap water and purifying it themselves. The Safe Drinking Water Act was implemented to assure the American people that our water is clean and safe to ingest (Environmental Protection Agency, 2016).

Plastic bottles of singer-serving of water are a popular choice for Americans; however this choice comes at the price of climate change. The bottled water industry in the United States is contributing to the permanent changing climate (Glazner). Climate change is a serious concern because regular weather patterns have been disrupted causing drought and flooding which results in terrible consequences for those who live in the affected areas (Perello). American bottled water companies and the American public are responsible for contributing to climate change by the production, transportation and consumption of plastic water bottles (Glazner).

Have you ever had any concerns about bottled water? Do you think that bottled water consumption should be banned? Bottled water is water packed in plastic containers and sold for human consumption (Health Canada, 2013). Currently, the amount of bottled water consumed has increased considerably since many people feel it is safer drinking bottled water than tap water (Parent and Wrong, 2014). According to The Statistics Portal, the global sale of bottled water took a leap from 161, 589 to 181, 608 liters from 2009 to 2011. Only in the United States, each American citizen consumed around 32 gallons of bottled water in 2013, thus meaning an equivalent growth of 15, 94% over 2009 (The Statistics Portal, 2014). In fact, due to good portability, bottled water has been helpful in both simple and complex situations such as daily exercises and natural disasters. Even though having those few considerable advantages, bottled water still have been less beneficial; especially due to the negative impacts in the socio-economic, health and environmental fields.

“We are a 24/7 on-the-go society who wants convenience in our beverage choices”. Kim E. Jeffery, CEO of Nestle Waters North company, made this comment in representation of the largest leader in the bottled water industry. It is no wonder how bottled water became so popular in our society. Healthier than soda, bottled water is conveniently stored in a lightweight, disposable, plastic bottle. Bottled water sales started when Perrier glass bottled water came overseas to America in the late 1970’s and in 1989, water was available in PET plastic bottles (Tapped). Now everywhere, bottled water can even be found in high school cafeterias while there are water fountains located in nearly every hall. However, there is an opposing view to the product with names such as Ice Mountain, Aquafina, Dasani, Sam’s Choice, and Acadia. Through research, bottled water is known to carry human pollutants, exceed other natural resource costs, and take part in a large portion of plastic waste, all in a sixteen ounce plastic bottle. Although bottled water is convenient in only a few cases, public education and legislation are necessary because of the human pollutants, costs, and waste.

The year 2007 seemed to be the beginning of unveiling the mask of bottled water. That year Pepsi which has the number-one selling bottled water in the U.S. announced that it would be changing the label on its bottles of Aquafina to indicate that the water was in fact filtered tap water. Coca-Cola announced that its Dasani water came from a public water

Have you ever noticed the terrible taste of tap water before? San Francisco has recently passed a law banning the sale of plastic water bottles. Why was this careless mistake made? The sale of water bottles on Escondido city property should not be banned due to state of emergency, traveling and convenience purposes, and health benefits.